“Five things”, is that even still a thing? Is blogging still a thing?! Certainly, it hasn’t been with me. So many things to do and so little time spent recording them, hikes hiked, trips taken, little successes, little moments, all so easy to forget. There is still time to salvage this year’s memories and keep alive my resolution to do so, but well, life goes on and the doing takes precedent over the recording.
So, here’s a bit of an update on this windy, Wednesday in late March, a quick recap of “five things” that we have been doing:
- JOHN FINALLY RETIRED
John has fully retired. He has been on “vacation” since the first of the year but as of the 31st, we have exhausted his vacation and have been cut free by the university. We are fully on our own which is both a bit scary and also quite exciting! Many conversations have been had about plans for the future. We are looking forward to implementing some of them.
2. SPRING IN EAST TENNESSEE HAS ARRIVED!
Sure, we are going through our usual round of spotty cold weather often named for whatever is blooming at the moment, redbud winter, dogwood winter and so forth but the late winter crocus and daffodils blooms have faded, the redbud blossoms are opening, the dogwoods are almost fully in bloom and tulips are showing their colorful heads. We are walking (and running) almost every day and recent walks have taken us though Ijams Nature Center where we have enjoyed the glory known as an East Tennessee spring. The photos below were taken just this week.
3. WE TOOK A QUICK TRIP TO HUNTSVILLE
Last weekend we took a quick trip to Huntsville, AL. The cover was to spend time with John’s mother, but the reality was to look at truck campers and Class B camper vans. These items are hard to come by in the days of Covid and one of the RV centers had a few we wanted to inspect. Sadly, none met our expectations, and we were not surprised by this. But we still have some possibilities in North Carolina and one “pending” our commitment in Vermont. This story line will continue! Meanwhile, I only took one picture while in Alabama and it involves Miss Katie unhappily sitting on the porch staring in the window while we ate breakfast.
4. GLORY BE THE BOY GRADUATED!
Say hello to the latest Dr. Dunlap, Lee Dunlap PhD. After 6 years of working his heart out at the University of California-Davis, Lee was awarded his doctorate in Chemistry on March 18. He graduates with numerous publications and several drug patents under his belt, both granted and pending. Sadly, for us he will remain in Davis as a post-doc in the same lab working with the same professor but employed by a drug development company out of Boston. We are so very proud!!!
5. WE TOOK A VACATION
With a little luck and time, I will write a post on our vacation to Florida in early March. We met up with four other couples in St. Mark’s for a few days of bicycling, kayaking and eating (although good food would elude us until the last day of the trip). We stayed in a fish camp that had not had much update since the 60’s but we did not spend much time in the room…except when it rained, hard!
With that, there is a little puppy girl in the other room trying to break into her new bag of food. Until next time…
